The Hammer won’t be pounding away on the dance floor any longer.
On Tuesday, Tom DeLay withdrew from “Dancing With the Stars” due to stress fractures in both of his feet, removing professional dancer Cheryl Burke from the competition as well.
Although he and Cheryl had enough votes and a high enough judges score to make it to Week 4, Tom confirmed he was dropping out after “DWTS” co-host Samantha Harris asked him if he planned to stay in the competition during the live broadcast.
“No, I won’t [continue],” Tom said as he choked up and looked down at his injured feet. “You can’t practice, and if you can’t practice you’ll make a fool of yourself out here and I don’t want to do that to Cheryl because she’s so great.”
The Republican from Texas was advised not to dance by his doctors on Monday, but took on the samba with Cheryl anyway, telling show host Tom Bergeron, “What’s a little pain when you can party.”
“I’m insane or stupid… one. I can’t figure out which” he explained on Monday of his will to compete. “I’ve been having a ball and Cheryl’s just been terrific.”
Leaving the show comes with an extra sting for the politician as next week he was set to dance the Texas two-step with Cheryl.
But should his feet get better, the Republican has been invited back for the “DWTS” season finale to perform the dance from his home state.
“I’d love that,” he said on Tuesday following an offer from show co-host Tom Bergeron. “That’d be wonderful.”
But while Tom is out, he isn’t the only star to suffer a recent “Dancing” injury.
Pop star Aaron Carter is battling a knee injury.
“On the way to the doctor,” he posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday afternoon. “I have to get xrays on my knee! Let’s hope I don’t need any shots.. Even though they’ve already said I do!”
On Monday night, Aaron explained he got the injury after his equipment moved out of place.
“I made a mistake earlier in the dress rehearsal and my knee pads kind of went up and I just fell on the bone on my knee,” he said.
But he vowed to carry on.
“The important thing is to keep your head up and I was keeping my head up and pushed through it, you know,” Aaron said. “There’s people who go through all kinds of worse injuries you know — football players who rip their hamstrings and all kinds of stuff and they still push through it.”
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